


The Perfect Future Reminiscence (and How it Fails to Appear)

by Genoa_Lexia



Series: The Perfect Reminiscence [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-05
Updated: 2014-01-05
Packaged: 2018-01-07 10:46:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1118970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Genoa_Lexia/pseuds/Genoa_Lexia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The downward spiral of all the things Louis has lost by gaining fame.</p>
<p>Or, the very long story of how Harry brings Louis back to himself</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Louis Tomlinson was not one of those people who had been alone for as long as he could remember. He was not pushed around in playgrounds or left without a partner when teachers told classes to work in pairs. He was not someone who had to hover awkwardly by the door until the class had filled up so as to not inadvertently steal someone else's seat. He was not left alone in the dining hall or without anyone to see at weekends. He was not without anyone to celebrate with at the end of his exams.

No, he was not any of those things. Louis' loneliness had crept up on him. It had happened gradually, slowly, over a number of years until he woke up one morning and realised that he didn't have anyone he could speak to. His phone was filled with the numbers of people he used to know and hadn't spoken to in years and with the numbers of people he didn't want to know. He'd become his own ghost, doing things - performing scripted actions - out of necessity, without passion. It was ironic how easily his years of drama had allowed him to become this person, this act.

Things had been like this for far too long now, though. This was his life. This was how it would be for the rest of it. The life he'd always wanted, painfully distorted by a fairground mirror of how he'd gone about it. He wasn't, couldn't be, bitter about it. He couldn't really feel anything at all anymore. If there was one thing of which he was sure, above all of his desperation, it was that he wholeheartedly deserved it.

Louis sees the preceding years of his life in moments now. Fragmented memories tinged with the uncertain possibility of the better future he could have had. The happy mixed with the sinister and the sad until the ratio becomes far too wide. Until the day he cut the last tie to his past.


	2. School and Happiness (and Other Somewhat Oxymoronic Statements)

 

 

 

 

**UV**

**I**

When Louis was starting his GCSE year he was entirely happy. He was the captain of the football A-Team that had won the inter-county finals for southern England last year and there wasn't a single person in his year which he would feel uncomfortable striking up a conversation with. He was closest to Niall, Stan, Hannah, Barbara and Liam, though.

Bursting into his new form room on the 4th September, Louis was met by a tidal wave of greetings. He smiled back and greeted everyone in return, before going over to claim a locker for the year.

"You should've got here earlier mate - all the top lockers are taken," A voice came from beside him.

"Bastards," He replied, turning to face his Irish friend who quickly pulled him into a hug. "Where's the rest of our motley crew?"

"'Motley crew,'" Niall repeats, laughing. "What the hell?" Louis found himself laughing as well.

"I don't know - I was watching Hairspray last night with the girls, that one's Lottie's favourite song," Niall looked up at him with a tinge of confusion.

"There's a song in Hairspray called Motley Crew?" Louis choked on a laugh and that set them both off again.

"Morning boys, good summer?" Came a voice which instantly cut off Niall's laughter.

"Pretty good, Babs. How was home?" Louis asked her, sitting down on one of the desks nearest to the lockers.

"Amazing, I haven't been back in so long," She replied with a bright smile.

Barbara Palvin. She'd started at their school at the beginning of the LV and quickly enchanted everyone they knew, Niall in particular. Model-good looks, bubbly personality and a ridiculous sense of humour; she fit in with their group seamlessly.

"Yeah I can tell," Louis replied, mock-stern, "We were making so much progress with that accent of yours..." She laughed again.

"I'm sorry! I'll try harder this year I promise!"

"You'd better," said Louis, narrowing his eyes playfully. The arrival of the rest of their friends interrupted her giggling and the boys' laughter. Louis turned round to greet everyone with a crinkly-eyed smile.

"There's the rest of our motley crew!" He exclaimed, causing Niall to dissolve back into hysterics. Such was their friendship that, without the need for an explanation, everyone else joined in with the laughter as they exchanged their hugs.

"Good summer?" Liam asked the group as he knelt down to claim a bottom locker, without complaint.

"I may, or may not, have had an awesome summer romance," Barbara replied coyly. Louis winced slightly at Niall's expression at the news and patted him on the shoulder in what he hoped came across as a comforting gesture. Sympathy wasn't his forte although he liked to think that he was an excellent friend nonetheless.

"Oh, really?" Hannah replied teasingly, dragging out the two words. "And what, pray tell, exactly happened there?" Barbara laughed again.

"Well... His name was Josh, he was from Michegan and-"

"If you're going to start with the girly squealing/giggling thing," Louis interupted, trying to save Niall from the conversation, "You can go and do it somewhere else."

"Fine, we shall," Barbara replied mock-snarkliy, narrowing her eyes, and the two girls went over to the opposite side of the classroom to continue their conversation.

"You know, you could just ask her out," Stan began, trailing off when he noticed Niall's expression.

"Mate, you might want to get a locker before they all go," Liam said, gesturing from Stan to the wall of lockers in front of them. Niall nodded his agreement.

"You know, every year I think that I'll get up ealry on the first day so I can be one of those people that nabs two lockers but then the morning comes and..."

"You can't be arsed," Louis finished.

"Pretty much."

"I don't understand why they're so small though - there is no way I'll be able to fit even half of my folders in a locker this size," Liam put it, sounding as annoyed as he ever got.

"Exactly, and why the hell do the Upper Thirds get such huge lockers - what are going to put in them anyway? A stash of money for the cake sales?"

"Well, they need somewhere to put their ridiculously large, mutant rucksacks..." Louis replied with a grin.

The bell for registration went at that point, followed by a synchronised groan from the whole class.

They turned to the door when their new form teacher walked in, a severe-looking man with a shiny, and very large (due to his receding hairline) forehead and wire-rimmed glasses. He looked to be in his late-fifties or early-sixties.

"Now, class," He proclaimed in a loud, booming voice. "You will be seated in alphabetical order, by surname, in this classroom. This will start here," At this point, he paused to indicate the table of eight directly in front of the teacher's desk."Before snaking around the back of the room until we reach the last desk by the door which will be where the person whose surname is the farthest from the beginning of the alphabet will sit."

Getting the feeling that it could be a very trying year with such a strict teacher, the class hurriedly busied themselves in working out which seats they were to sit in and promptly doing so. Louis was next to Hannah in the row of desks closest to the door, while Barbara and Liam were seated opposite one another at the end of the table of eight, with Niall and Stan a few seats away from them.

Their form teacher ("Mr White," He announced in his booming voice) began handing out their timetables, Louis was one of the last to receive his.

                    Monday          Tuesday          Wednesday          Thursday          Friday

Period 1      English           French            English                 English              Philosophy

Period 2      Physics           Philosophy      Art                        Physics              PSHE/Assembly

Period 3      Maths             Chemistry       PS                          French              Maths

Period 4      Art                  English            Chemistry            Maths               History

Period 5      Biology           PS                    Art                        Biology             Chemistry

Period 6      History           Biology            Physics                 PE

He groaned audibly at the thought of having three science lessons per week. Louis sighed before comparing his schedule with the rest of his friends - English and PE with everyone, History with Liam, Philosophy with Hannah, Maths with Niall and Hannah. Not too bad, he supposed. Much better than last year, when he'd had every lesson except English without a single one of his closest friends, anyway.

At that point the bell went, signalling the end of registration. Everyone filed out of the classroom.

* * *

 

** II **

**  
**Louis was wearing a ridiculously large number of layers. He was wearing: a shirt, a jumper, a hoodie, a jacket, a coat, a pair of gloves and two scarves. Bloody English weather.

He and Liam'd been standing under the Winter Wonderland sign for the last quarter of an hour waiting for everyone else to arrive. About a minute ago, Liam had received a text from Niall saying that they were all on the same bus and shouldn't be more than five minutes longer. Louis did not want to wait more than five minutes; he did not enjoy standing in sub-zero temperatures, especially as Liam had been denying him the simple pleasure of getting a hot chocolate from one of the nearby stalls to warm his hands. He had done so with the reasoning that getting a hot chocolate now would ruin their annual tradition of getting the first one of the winter together. Louis hated it when Liam used logic.

"Heyyyyy!" Came the drawling, American of voice of Barbara Palvin who was half-walking, half-skipping in their direction, Stan, Hannah and Niall in tow.

"Sorry for making you wait - the traffic was really slow along Kensington High Street," Hannah said apologetically. Louis shrugged, flashing her a grin.

"S'alright - as long as we can go straight to the hot chocolate,"

"You don't want to scout around for the best price?"

"No, Liam I do not. I have waited far too long already." Louis replied, only half-joking.

Well, in that case - to the hot chocolate!" Stan exclaimed with a rather excellent Superman impression. They stumbled towards the first stall with varying degrees of enthusiasm, the girls languishing at the back and regretting their shoe choices.

The stall was meant to look as though it had been contructed out of mahogany and sold hot chocolate and crepes. Perfect. Louis, having made sure to be the first to reach the queue, took the first sip of the drink he had been craving for weeks.

"Remind me again why we decided that none of us were allowed hot chocolate until the annual Winter Wonderland trip?" Niall questioned as he searched for a two pound coin in his wallet.

"I don't know but it's probably one of the stupidest we've ever had," Hannah replied. "On second thoughts, it was probably Stan's idea."

"Oi!" Stan laughed, mock-glaring at her.

"How is it, by the way, Lou?" Barbara asked. Louis let out a happy sigh.

"Heavenly."

"Sorry, excuse me but I don't suppose I could just speak to you for a few second?" Came the voice of a woman who looked to be in her early-forties. She had mid-length blonde hair that was streaked with grey and was indicating Barbara who gave her a friendly, if a little confused, smile.

"Sure, what's up?" She asked nicely.

"Are you a model?" Barbara laughed a little.

"What? I mean, um, no. I'm not."

"Have you ever thought about it?" Asked the woman, with a kind smile. The sound of a mobile ringing pierced the air at that point. "Sorry, " The woman continued. "I have to go now but take my card and maybe have your parents call me at some point? If you'd be interested in doing some model work."

Barbara took the card and thanked the woman who rushed off with a parting smile. The teenage girl turned to her friends with a pleased, quizzical expression.

"Did that...?"

Louis laughed. "Yep, and on that note I shall be buying this £2.50 hot chocolate for you as that will make this a date and solely so that I will, at some point, be able to say that I dated a model," Louis finished this statement with a flourish and a cheeky grin at his American friend.

Barbara laughed, shaking her head and quietly muttering the word 'mental' to herself.

Once all six of them had acquired their hot chocolate, they began to walk through the lines of stalls, pausing every so often when one of them saw something of interest.

"Christ. I forgot how bloody expensive the rides are here," Niall commented as they passed a miniture rollercoaster which demanded 6 tokens per ride - tokens which had to be bought for £1 each.

"Yeah, it's a rip-off," Stan agreed, matching Niall's grumpy tone. The others chipped in with sounds of agreement.

After an hour or so of wandering through the lanes of stalls and ridiculing the people who had chosen to pay extortionate amounts for the rides, they felt the first few drops of rain.

"It's going to pour," Liam noted, glancing up at the grey sky. "We should probably go now,"

Everyone else agreed and they began to weave their way through the crowds and head back to the entrance of the fair, slowly increasing their speed as the rainfall got heavier. They were sprinting by the time they got to the last hundred metres, laughing hysterically.

"Come on!" Hannah said, "I can see a bus..." The end of the sentence was lost to more laughter as the group ran down the road.

Still laughing hysterically, they piled onto the back of a Routemaster just as it was leaving.

* * *

 

** III **

**  
**Louis was sitting uncomfortably at his desk one day at the end of February. It was Form Period and today they would receive the results of their Mock GCSEs. In short, Louis was terrified.

He knew that there wasn't anything he could do now that would change the results but, naturally, that did nothing to ease his fears.

Mr White dropped a wad of stapled-together pieces of paper onto Louis' desk with a dull thud. They were face-down, thankfully. Louis looked at the make-shift booklet.

A few minutes later, he was still looking. Around the classroom, people were happily shouting their results.

"A in History - ace!"

"How the hell did I get an A* in English?! I literally did not have a clue what that unseen poem meant..."

"I got a B in maths - pretty damn good considering it's my worst subject..."

"Latin - A*!"

After a while, Louis was able to distinguish the voices of his closest friends from the frenzy of noise.

"A in French, thank God; A*s in Music and English Lit. and Bs in everything else," Niall's Irish lilt exclaimed happily

"By some miracle, I got 4 A*s - Italian, Geography, Biology and Art - and then As in everything else," Barbara noted, her voice infused with shock.

"I got an A in Maths!" Stan added loudly.

"What about you, Lou? Happy?" Hannah asked from the seat next to him. Louis turned to give her a half-sheepish smile.

"Haven't looked yet," He replied, a little awkwardly. Hannah shot him a quizzical look and so Louis decided to just bite the bullet.

English Literature: B

English Language: B

Maths: C

Biology: C

Physics: C

Chemistry: C

History: C

Philosophy: B

Theatre Studies: A

French: D

 

Fuck.

Louis leaned back, running his hands through his hair with a groan. Right. This was not going to happen when he got his real GCSE results. No. Definitely not - he would do all that he could to avoid it, and the resultant disappointment it would bring his family. It was at this moment that Louis made a solid promise to himself - _he would revise properly for his exams_.

* * *

 

** IV **

 

Revision. Brilliant. Louis suddenly understood why people had been doing this for so long. It was scintillating.

Louis sighed noisily and decided to start writing out some notes for Chemistry. After dragging his eyes over to his specification to check the first bullet point (hydrocarbons), Louis put pen to paper.

_Hydrocarbons will be one of two things: an alkane or an alkene. An alkane is a hydrocarbon which forms only one carbon bond; an alkene will always contain at least one carbon-carbon double bond._

_  
_Louis paused in his writing for a second to mentally check if what he'd written was actually correct. He wasn't sure that he'd got the two hydrocarbon definitions the right way round. You can only get methane, not methene; as methane contains one carbon atom, alkanes must be- Louis must have been right the first time. He smiled to himself.

_The process of naming hydrocarbons is quite simple after you have determined whether they are alkenes or alkanes. The first part of the name depends on the number of carbon atoms/ions the molecule contains._

_Hydrocarbons with one carbon atom begin with 'meth'_

_Hydrocarbons with two carbon atoms begin with 'eth'_

_Hydrocarbons with three carbon atoms-_

_  
_Was that 'prope' or 'but'? Louis couldn't remember. After making a mental note to look it up later, he continued with the list.

_Hydrocarbons with five carbon atoms begin with 'pent'_

_Hydrocarbon with six carbon atoms begin with 'hex'_

_Hydrocarbons with seven carbon atoms begin with 'hept'_

_Hydrocarbons with eight carbon atoms begin with 'oct'_

_Hydrocarbons with nine carbon atoms begin with 'non'_

_Hydrocarbons with ten carbon atoms begin with 'dec'_

_  
_Thank God Louis didn't need to know any numbers higher than that. Although, the ones that were the same as their various polygonic counterparts should be easy to remember.

_Cracking is when a long chained hydrocarbon is heated until it is broken down into two or more shorter-chained hydrocarbons. This is done to help the supply and demand ratio. For example, gasoline is a short-chained hydrocarbon and in far more demand than bitumen, a long-chained hydrocarbon._

 This was boring. Louis was bored. Really bored. He let out a heavy sigh and reminded himself of his promise - he would not procrastinate anymore. He really needed to work. Letting out another sigh, Louis steeled himself to reenter the land of revision.

* * *

 

** V **

**  
**Louis was called into the drama studio after five minutes of waiting (and staring at the poster for the Senior Play that was blu-tacked to the door) - auditions were the only things he was ever early for.

"Louis Tomlinson?" One of the sixth formers who was running the audition checked. Louis smiled a little nervously.

"Yep, that's me," He replied.

"Okay, we'll give you the script of a monologue and five minutes to learn it. After that you'll just have to perform it for us."

"Cool," Louis smiled, taking the script. It was from the play Invisible Friends, by Alan Ayckbourn, with which Louis was vaguely familiar. He read over it quietly for a few minutes, trying to work out how much movement he should add in to create more of a performance - there was nothing more dull than someone standing in one place, reciting a monologue as though it were a poem.

He had just finished reading through the extract for the fourth time when his name was called and he was summoned back tot the main auditioning space.

"Okay, when you're ready Louis," One of the sixth formers, Taylor, that Louis vaguely knew due to being on the football team with her brother Austin, said with a smile.

"You may have heard my mum talking about my invisible friend? Do you remember?" Louis began, expressively.

"Well,"  He continued. "That's my invisible friend, Zara.  _(Introducing her)_  this is Zara. I want you to meet Zara. Zara, say hello. _(Pause)_  That's right."  Louis looked into the distance and spoke in a musing tone.

_(Pause, smiling)_  "I invented Zara, oh years ago, when I was seven or eight. Just for fun." Louis smiled.

"I think I was ill at the time and wasn't allowed to play with any of my real friends, so I made up Zara. She's my special friend that no one else can see, except me.  _(Pause)_  Of course, I can't really see her either. Not really. Although sometimes can I? It's almost as if I could see her, sometimes. If I concentrate vary hard it's like I can just glimpse her out of the corner of my eye." Louis blinked as though being broken from a reverie.

_(Pauses, concentrating)_  "Still. Anyway. I've kept Zara for years and years. Until they all started saying I was much too old for that sort of thing and got worried and started talking about sending for a doctor. So then I didn't take her round with me quite so much after that. But she's still here. And when I feel really sad and depressed, I sit and talk to Zara. Zara always understands. Zara always listens. She's special. Aren't you, Zara?  _(Listens to Zara)_  What? Yes, I wish he'd turn his music down, too. I've asked him, haven't I?  _(mimicking)_  But he just says, 'how can I hear the music then if I turn it down. I can't hear the bass then!' I used to have pictures up on the walls of this room, but every time he put a CD on, they would all fall down off the walls. I wish he would listen to quiet music, just once, like some Bach or Mozart. Of course, if he did that he wouldn't be Grisly Gary now would he? Oh Zara, I almost forgot to tell you. I got picked for the school swimming team today. I know, I'm really excited too. _(Pause, looks around, yelling)_  If anyone is interested, I was picked for the school swimming team today. How about that folks? Mum? Dad? Anybody?  _(Pause)_  Great, thanks everyone." Louis threw himself down onto the bench at the back of the room.

  _(Pause)_  "Oh, Zara. I know you're always here. It's just that sometimes I get so lonely." Louis finished on a voice that sounded close to tears.

 The sixth formers gave him wide smiles and thanked him.

"The cast list will up on Friday," Taylor said, before saying goodbye to him.

"Thanks," Louis clicked the door shut behind him, happy with his audition.

* * *

 

** VI **

**  
**"Today we will be going over Hitler's consolidation of power between 1919 and the end of 1933 and the factors which contributed to his eventual success in becoming Germany's dictator," Began Ms. Jewkes' loud voice on the last lesson of the last Monday before the Easter holidays.

"Yes! I love dictatorships." Louis turned round to shoot a look of amused confusion at the source of the voice. He received a dimpled smile from Ashton, one of his football teammates (the goalie), which he returned with a laugh and an amused shake of the head.

"When do get to eat the food?" Someone asked from the back, receiving a skewering glare from their teacher.

"You may eat the snacks, which I expect to be passed all around the room, only when you answer a question correctly. If you talk too much and, thus, miss the question I ask you, you will have to answer another one from a different topic," Ms. Jewkes answered, in her bizarre Northern Irish/American hybrid accent.

Liam, who was sitting next to him - as he did every History lesson -, nudged Louis' chair with his foot.

"Bet you a packet of Malteasers half this lesson will be spent asking off-topic questions,"

"True," Louis laughed, his eyes crinkling to slits.

"Luke! How would you like to take the first question?" Ms. Jewkes said, interupting the conversation Luke and Ashton had been having, with a raised eyebrow.

"I'd love to," Luke replied unapologetically, mirth glinting in his eyes.

"Okay, well come up to the board and I would like you to put these events into chronological order," The woman turned to write 6 events on the whiteboard in a faded red pen.

**Sparticist Uprising     Enabling Act     Reichstag Fire     Kapp Putsch     Kristallnacht     Death of Hindenburg**

**  
**Louis read through the words on the board and was pleased to note that he knew the order of at least four of the six events. Luke turned to face the class with a panicked expression, Louis shot him a sympathetic look.

"Um... I'm not quite sure," Luke said, his Sydney accent more defined than usual.

"This is a three mark question Luke - they should be the easiest three marks of the paper," Ms. Jewkes answered, her voice grating somewhat. Luke just looked at her semi-sheepishly. "Alright then, fine. Go back to your seat. Does anyone else want to have a go?"

Louis hesitantly raised his hand.

"Louis - excellent, come on up,"

Louis slowly made his way up to the board, taking the whiteboard pen from the desk in front of the board. He chewed on his lip for a second before rewriting the words in a different order.

**Sparticist Uprising     Kapp Putsch     Reichstag Fire     Enabling Act     Kristallnacht     Death of Hindenburg**

**  
**"Are you sure?" Ms. Jewkes checked. Louis nodded uncertainly. "Close. Very, very close - you've just put two of them the wrong way round." She rubbed out the two incorrect answers and rewrote the events in the correct order.

**Sparticist Uprising     Kapp Putsch     Reichstag Fire     Enabling Act     Death of Hindenburg     Kristallnacht**

**  
**"I think what you must've done is confuse the Night of Broken Glass with the Night of the Long Knives," Ms. Jewkes said, giving Louis a patronisingly sympathetic smile. He grimaced in return. "You would've gained two marks, however, so have some food," She finished, laughing slightly. Louis despised it when teachers tried to be 'down with the kids' and exchanged a look with Liam, before helping himself to a Milky Way.

"Ashton!" Ms. Jewkes said, interupting another conversation between him and Luke. "In which year did Stalin die?"

"1953," Louis muttered to his friend.

"That would be 1953, Ms. Jewkes," Ashton repeated with a bright smile. The teacher narrowed her eyes at him before turning back to the board. "Cheers," He mouthed to Louis who nodded in return, glad his revision seemed to be paying off.

"Nice," Liam commented to Louis, smiling at his friend. Louis, pleased, returned the smile bashfully.

Ms. Jewkes was rambling on in the background about negative cohesion while Louis, bored, decided to see if he could track down the last mini Milky Bar in the room. He scanned his row of desks, without any success, before awkwardly craning his neck to see the one behind. Ashton, who was sitting behind him, looked at him quizzically.

"Have you seen a Milky Bar?" He whispered, half-laughing. "I'm really craving one," 

"I have not. However, I will make it my quest to track one down in order that I can repay that which I am indebted to you for saving me from," He paused, to take a dramatic breath."The dragon!" He finished, wide-eyed. Louis tried to smother his laughter.

"...So, Liam Payne, how much of an effect do think propaganda had, in the end?" Ms. Jewkes' bizarrely-accented voice interjected, her monotonous monologue finally complete. Liam started a little bit, before blinking and taking a breath so answer.

"The anti-Communist propaganda was probably the most potent to give the Nazis the crucial seats in the Reichstag, as it was coming, not only from them , but from numerous other parties. The anti-semitic propaganda that Goebbels was distributing also drew on beliefs and opinions which were held at the time..."

Louis found himself zoning out. His mind didn't reengage until the bell went at the end of the lesson.

* * *

 

** VII **

**  
**"Louis, sweetheart?" Louis glanced up at the sound of his mum's soft voice. He shuffled slightly from his position, seated in the centre of the flight of stairs, to give her space to sit down.

"Yeah?" Jay inhaled, as though steeling herself for the coming conversation.

"Lottie's reply from Brighton arrived today," She began, pausing to try and work out how best to phrase it.

"It was an acceptance letter?" Louis guessed, half-smiling.

"Yes, it was. Obviously this is a fantastic opportunity for her - not to mention her dream school so-"

"Of course she's going to go," Louis interupted. Jay smiled at him gratefully.

"The thing is, the girls and I, we'll all have to move there. I can't make you transfer schools, obviously, though so I've been thinking about what we could do." There's a pause. "I figured you could stay with Mark," Louis winced at the mention of his former step-father. "For the last couple of years of school."

Louis pushed his hair out of his eyes, wishing he didn't slightly resent his mother for this. He really shouldn't - he was ridiculously proud of Lottie for getting a place at one of the top ten schools in the country but after the divorce he had been completely adament that he would never speak to Mark again, let alone live with him. Also, he knew just how much he sould miss his mum and his sisters if they were that far away.

It wasn't his place to stand in the way of his little sister's future, though. Louis sighed.

"Lou?"

"Yeah, no that sounds good," He smiled weakly. "I understand."

Jay pulled him into a hug and he tried not to think about how infrequent they would soon be becoming.

* * *

 

** VIII **

**  
**"Hello? Check, check. Rhubarb." Louis said into his microphone as he stood on stage the week before the dress rehearsal of the Senior Play. Things had been somewhat hectic recently as the Tech Team had managed to lose half of the microphones and had to hastily re-order them. Naturally, the new ones weren't the same sort and needed to be set to an entirely different volume. This led to even later rehearsals that usual. Louis didn't mind, though - anything about the production was enjoyable for him, in all honesty.

The cast was smaller than usual this year, only 60 students out of the 480 who were eligible for auditions. Not that there were usually that many people - generally the Senior Play had a cast of around a hundred people.

Louis preferred it like this, however. It gave him the chance to properly get to know everyone.

In the space of the two and a half months since his audition, he'd been in appoximately 15 hours of rehearsals. Louis knew that this made sense as their performances were at the end of the summer term, but it was still somewhat exhausting. He enjoyed the time spent with the cast however, despite only one of his closest friends being with him.

"Okay, that's fine - we've got it now. Could you send Bella onstage?" Came the voice of their sound engineer, Michael, whose varying hair colours had always been a source of fascination for Louis. He shot him a salute and found the small Australian girl, before plopping down on one of the chairs in front of the stage.

"Excuse you, Louis Tomlinson. How dare you snub me like tha? Casually walking right past me to sit next to an empty chair? I am outraged!" Louis turned to see Barbara looking at with her hands on her hips and a dramatically-angry expression. He laughed.

"M'lady I am dreadfully sorry. The extent of said feelings reaching far beyond all previously discovered realms of apologetic-ness," He replied gallantly.

"Ah, the British and their words - 'apologetic-ness'. Not to mention the accent..." Barbara laughed, moving over to sit next to him. Louis mock-growled at her.

"For the last time!" He said, laughingly. "There is no such thing as a 'British accent'! Aside from the countless regional differences," Louis paused upon seeing his friend's expression and decided to cut down the length of his rant. He sighed. "A person from Great Britain will have one of four,  _entirely different_ , accents - English, Northern Irish, Welsh or Scottish."

Barbara just shrugged. Louis narrowed his eyes at her.

"You know, it actually might be the last time I hear that enchanting speech of yours," She drawled. Louis gave her a quizzical look.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you remember, at Winter Wonderland, how that woman gave me her card..." Louis nodded. "Well, I called a couple months ago-"

"A couple  _of_ months ago," Louis corrected absentmindedly.

"A couple of months ago," She repeated laughingly. "And I've been working with her and the company for a while and they thought it would be easier over in the States and they have this campaign lined up for me so..." She paused. "I'mmovingbacktoAmerica," Barbara finished in a rush.

Louis raised his eyebrows at her.

"Let me get this straight - you are moving back across the pond," She nodded. "To focus on your modelling career," Barbara nodded again, a touch more warily. "The one that you casually forgot to mention to us. Does that sound right?"

"Um, yeah," She replied sheepishly.

"Bitch." She laughed and soon the two of them couldn't stop. 

The rest of the rehearsal was spent in hysterics (and Louis trying not to think about the fact that, come July, he probably wouldn't see her in person for a long time).

* * *

 

** IX **

Louis was up much earlier than usual, especially when it was taken into account that it was the summer holidays. They hadn't felt all that much like a holiday this year, though, with the stress of the arrival of their results looming at the end of August. 22nd August to be precise. Today.

The house was quiet in a way Louis supposed he would have to try and get used to, given that he would be living in a house with only one other person, come September. He didn't really need to think about that right now, however. Not when he could be doing things that were much more fun.

Of these 'much more fun' things, Louis had chosen to worry about his GCSE results. 'To sit in terror' would probably be a much more fitting description, however. Louis needed to have good results. Although his school was not one that recquired a certain set of results in order to go into the Sixth Form, Louis really did need to do well. Better than he did in his Mocks, definitely.

Those Mock results had been horrendous, especially at a school such as Louis' where they were expected to get all A's and A*'s in their GCSEs. And, the fact was, nearly everyone did. Louis did not want to be the exception to that rule.

He'd looked over last year's results and, of the 1260 exams seated by the year, there were 68 B's and 13 C's, all of which had been remarked and the grades re-allocated. So, basically, he needed to have improved on his mock grades by at least 16 grades. Brilliant. _Brilliant._

When was the postman even meant to come? Louis knew that some schools made you go in to collect your results and had been glad that his wasn't among them when he found out. Thinking about it now though, he reckoned he would have preferred that - at least then he would know exactly when he would receive them.

 Louis wondered whether or not he should attempt some form of breakfast, as a way to speed up the wait. At that very moment, however, Louis heard the clunk of letters falling through the slip in the door and into the letter basket.

Bracing himself, Louis went to collect the post.

Letter for Mum, from the bank. Something from Lottie's school. Leaflet about the fair of a local primary school.

And then there it was.

Louis retrieved the letter-opener from the drawer and sliced the envelope open.

 

English Literature: B

English Language: A

Maths: C

Biology: C

Physics: B

Chemistry: A

History: A*

Philosophy: B

Theatre Studies: A*

French: C

 

Hell.


End file.
